Using+Edmodo+-+High+School

Using edmodo in Middle School & High School
Art English Geography History Mathematics Science Technology and Applied Studies Drama

Using edmodo in Art Classes
Miss Kennedy with her Photography class says:
 * Add links to student Picassa albums.

Using edmodo in English Classes
We are a small rural High School of approx 200 students in the NSW New England Region. We are currently using Edmodo in Stage 5 and 6 English. Many of these suggestions relate to our journey in Stage 5 Term 1 2011. We are discovering ways to use Edmodo more effectively all the time.
 * Chatting with students in real time sharing views on texts or topics
 * Students share examples of work with peers for praise and peer assessment
 * If we are discussing a particular text, students can add examples of their own that they recommend.
 * Quick fire writing/10 minute/descriptive writing-students can see the work of others and the teacher can join in
 * Great for Modelling!
 * An assessment task for Stage 5 this year required students to deconstruct a text we loaded to edmodo.
 * Students had access to the text for a week before the “in class task”. For students without internet at home, we uploaded to their computers for equity. We also had a number of practise activities (different texts) before the task and students could access these via edmodo. Students posted questions or completed their own practise answers to submit for the teacher to review. We found it has spurred the other students on in terms of effort. Especially since every student has access in class. It allowed for differentiation of instruction and also for students who had completed work to “steam ahead”. Not always the “top” students either!
 * Our students in Stage 5 and 6 choose a variety of pathways-the immediacy of Edmodo is great for enabling them to stay in the loop. Love iphone app for that.
 * The grade book in Edmodo is a real bonus for English e.g. for a class activity we used the DER laptops to create persuasive texts for advertising. Students used the paint application and templates to create ads that used colour to suit different contextual purposes. The majority of students chose to create online and load to Edmodo-straight to grade book for marking. No more lugging home on paper or on a USB all of the different types of texts that we create weekly or sifting through email!
 * Web tools sit beautifully in Edmodo.
 * Edmodo is our KLA Staff communication and sharing space.

Future Goals for Edmodo in English KLA at our school:
 * Sharing a reading or writing group with the local Primary school to encourage conversations between students.
 * Connecting with another country/school/class for an inquiry learning project.

//Edmodo is great for conversations that count.// Carla Beattie (Saunders), Warialda High School

**Edmodo in Junior and Senior English classes**

 * By Bianca Hewes **

I have been using edmodo for quite a while now (since May 2009) and it's been wonderful to share in its growth as a learning tool. It has evolved organically through community feedback and I like that about and tool I use.

I have blogged about how I use edmodo in my English classroom quite a few times. Feel free to click below on the titles of my posts to get some tips on bringing edmodo into your classroom - and even into your home and the home of your students!

Edmodo Keeps Getting Better [|Helping high school students understand the value of a PLN and PLE] [|Edmodo – my free mobile virtual classroom.] And here are some blog posts that I have written for the edmodo blog outlining how I use edmodo on a daily basis: Innovative, Free and Easy Moving Freely Between Learning Spaces Teaching is Manic - Bring It!!

Using edmodo in Geography Classes

 * Edmodo allows students to access information outside of the classroom with work and activities sorted into different topics and groups within the library.
 * Useful links to relevant websites sent directly or connected to a [|Symbaloo]account provide fast and easy access to the internet sites used in the classroom
 * Opportunity for group work - especially for civics and citizenship projects to be shared between group members.
 * Students share mapping activity examples and work - often working together to resolve any problems.
 * Edmodo itself is an excellent example of globalisation and the connections people are creating - it has become a real work example that is discussed within the classroom - both the positive and any negatives with the new communication networks.
 * A group is set up for a "job interview" Students submit job applications online - group comments. More relevant for the Commerce. Example of a poor site and a good site is created - to inform students about the pitfalls when they do not control their online profiles and how it may affect their future job applications.

Jenny Jordan, Randwick Girls High School

Using edmodo in History Classes
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We are a small rural High School of approx 200 students in the NSW New England Region. We are currently using Edmodo in Stage 5 and 6 History.
 * Easily manage the different content and learning experiences in a multi stage Senior History class. Edmodo provides a way to facilitate learning at different levels whilst still focusing on the core skills and inquiry learning.
 * Once you have created a main group for the class or stage, Edmodo allows you to create different groups for each topic
 * Create your own eBook for the topic you are studying and store in the library
 * Embed a map, clip, PowerPoint, presentation for students to comment on, collaborate on or work from
 * Deconstruct a source for reliability /usefulness by collaborating via edmodo first and then write it up. Students can then refer back and teacher can guide the skill building in real time
 * Students can share assessment task examples after they are completed, their multimedia creations or ideas in order to collaborate or build knowledge. They can also easily share with you, via direct posts, progress they are making on tasks
 * On DER one-to-one laptops, the paint function allows for maps to be coloured for alliances, territory etc and loaded to edmodo for sharing
 * Use the assignment up loader for assessment tasks and they are securely delivered to your grade book for online mark
 * The edmodo library is great for sharing resources. Another idea is that links to a specific topic via Symbaloo allow students direct access to a single topic page of resources and tools that they can add to their own Personal Learning Environment or easily reference within the group via a tag. Students can share links, tools and research sites
 * Create a homework or exam group for peer and teacher collaboration. Topic experts can share expertise
 * Collaborating with other small or larger schools on topics that teachers have expertise in to share class ideas, responses for a wider peer or professional audience. This could be especially useful for regional students in exam revision
 * Form an overseas, national or regional connection with class, individual or institution relevant to the Depth Study or topic. For example, our school had a Veteran from the local area speak about Vietnam and there is now an opportunity to build a group to keep the conversations started flowing. One of our Modern History students won a Premiers Scholarship and the photo collection from his trip to the Front could be shared with other schools
 * As with any subject, Edmodo allows History students who are undertaking courses via multiple campuses access to classroom work 24/7. This is very useful for Stage 5 students who may only have face to face time of 2 or 3 classes out of 4 per cycle, depending on individual school time allocations for History

Carla Beattie (Saunders), Warialda High School

We use edmodo in a similar manner as mentioned above.
 * It is a very useful tool to link students to the different sites that are used in class, either with a link directly sent to the group or through sites such as [|Symbaloo.]There is no delay or time wasted waiting for students to locate and type in correct address - it is provided for them.
 * Instant survey - useful when judging particular historical events and major turning points.
 * Create a voting platform when discussing political actions / elections. Students use these to choose an option - then as a whole class discuss which answers were the most popular and why. Develop their argument. From this the class may scaffold a written response.
 * Group work is not limited to the classroom. Groups now work online. Some groups have specified times - this allows me to assist and monitor their progress.
 * For the senior courses it is no longer necessary to photocopy vast amount of handouts. All extra reading is posted to the library or links provided to guide them to relevant sites. This provides them with time to read the information and reduces the amount of work they have to carry.
 * Links to other knowledge experts - communication and knowledge is not limited or structured through the teacher but they can now work with other experts.

Jenny Jordan, Randwick Girls High School

Using edmodo in Mathematics Classes
//So how do you respond to mathematics teachers who say : "Maths is done on pen-and-paper, we don't have any use for edmodo" ?// //A related attitude is that "Maths is something you do on your own". If however you subscribe to the view that students working collaboratively is a great way to learn and explore mathematics, and that mathematics is as much about exploration and problem solving as it is about doing exercises, ... then edmodo has much to offer. Do join the edmodo math community (in edmodo) - over 8000 teachers so far!//

**Make your digital lesson resources available to students**
edmodo is a very convenient way to make any PowerPoints or Interactive Whiteboard notes available to your students. Excellent for students who missed class, or didn't quite understand those long complicated worked solutions when you first did them on the board. If you used a YouTube video, or visited a web site to show something, provide the link in an edmodo post.

**Embed GeoGebra resources directly into edmodo**
GeoGebra files can be saved on your computer as web pages and then uploaded to edmodo as an HTML file - they will automatically appear as embedded interactive GeoGebra applications inside edmodo.

**Embed Desmos graph files directly into edmodo**
NEW: The new free online graphing calculator Desmos (desmos.com) provides an easy mechanism to save and link to your graphs.

Encourage students to share homework support through edmodo
Why wait until the next day in class to get help with a homework problem? Students can help each other through edmodo. If they don't want to learn LaTex (and they really won't need much for most year levels), they can take a photo of their work in progress with a smartphone and post that on edmodo. Encourage students asking about homework to post to the class group, not directly to you. Students seem to be more likely to use edmodo for this purpose if they are linked to edmodo through their smartphone.

Hint: Don't respond to student questions about homework too quickly - you will find other students come in to help more if you aren't too quick off the mark!

edmodo provides support for writing math equations
Use the [math] and [/math] tags to embed LaTex expression in your edmodo posting. For junior high school mathematics, the LaTex code is extremely simple - so for example, [math]ax^2 + bx +c[/math] produces the general quadractic form, and writing [math]\frac{-2b}{a}[/math] will give you a fraction showing -2b divided by a. You could teach your students to write basic LaTex in a ten minute session.

Here is a summary on using LaTex in edmodo by Ronald Knapper, including a table of expressions you would typically use in a high school mathematics course:

NEW: A great new web tool to generate LaTeX expressions: [|http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html] write your math expression with a mouse or pen and it works out the LaTex code for you, ready to emebed in your edmodo post, wrapped inside [math] [/math] tags.

edomodo quizzes for doing multiple choice revision and exit quizzes
Instant feedback on whether students understood the lesson. Edmodo quizzes support LaTex too.

**Organising material into library folders**
I originally made one folder per topic per class - it was getting out of hand. A new idea will be to make one folder per syllabus strand (as opposed to topic) per class - this should make it more manageable.

**Student badges for mastery**
If you are following a Standards Based Grading or Mastery approach, consider making badges for your standards. This idea suggested my Mrs Minter in the Edmodo Math Community.

Using edmodo in Science Classes
I am currently using Edmodo for my Year 10 science class and my Year 11 Physics class. Both classes have access to 1:1 laptops as part of the Digital Education Revolution. For my Year 11s, I use it to upload lesson outlines, resources for each lesson, assessment notifications. assessment tasks and other resources such as syllabus documents, external exam information and videos. Both my students and I have found that having all lesson outlines and lesson resources uploaded onto Edmodo have allowed them to become better organised. Students can look at Edmodo when they are organising their notes. They can print worksheets straight away when they notice they have misplaced it, instead of waiting to come to school to ask me the next day. I upload these lesson outlines and resources the day before the lesson. Most students are now accessing Edmodo nightly so they can download the work for the next day.

For my Year 11s I also use Edmodo to facilitate classroom discussion. I always have a quick quiz at the start of every lesson where students answer simple questions to revise the concepts learnt in the previous lesson. Before Edmodo, students copied the questions and answered them in their books or laptops. I would ask for answers and usually the same student will answer. I now post the questions up onto Edmodo and students reply with their answers. I have found that one student who used to be very shy were one of the first students to respond on Edmodo. Also, it allows me to have a better overview of each student's understanding. Instead of walking around to read each student's answers, all of their answers are displayed on Edmodo and I can easily tell whether most of the class "gets it" or whether I have to go over the concept again.

Edmodo has also enabled my classroom to become "walless". I was absent from class for two consecutive days earlier in the year for a conference. Students were able to ask me questions on Edmodo. One student asked me how to do a mathematical problem I was able to record a video of the working out using Adobe Captivate and upload the video - while not being physically in class!

For my Year 10s I use Edmodo quite differently. I don't upload lesson outlines or worksheets. I use Edmodo as a platform to implement gamification (Please see my blog for more details). I have created small groups for each team of students where they discuss elements of scientific investigations and submit their tasks as a team. I upload their points and achievement badges via Edmodo. I also share this class with another teacher (I have this class 3 times out of 4 per week). Edmodo has allowed the other teacher and I to collaborate more effectively as we can see what each other is doing in real time.

I have also supported and advised other teachers at my school on how to use Edmodo. Another science teacher uses Edmodo for her year 7 class to upload their homework. The homework often integrates YouTube videos and other interactive activities not possible on paper. I have monitored that group and the students are regularly discussing their homework and assignments.

//Alice Leung - Head Teacher Science, Merrylands High School//

Using edmodo in Technology and Applied Studies (TAS)

 * Debbie Agapitos Head Teacher TAS, Randwick Girls High School, uses edmodo in Year 11 Design and Technology to post assessment tasks. Recently they completed a sustainable environment project on climate change with the Observatory Hill Education Centre and shared the results of their research on climate change with the Education Centre via video conference.

**Using Edmodo in Drama Classes**

 * Jane Mullen, Drama Teacher @ Carlingford High is using Edmodo as way for students to collaborate on Scriptwriting for stage and film using the DER Devices to record entries on the inbuilt webcam for their film. Students were asked to choose setting - time/place, characters, and an item of value, and then construct a script by adding a segment at a time both individually and in small groups.